Women in War

We’ve read the reports that our Woman Warriors in The Stan are being encouraged to wear scarves over their heads. We’ve read views supporting and opposing this from all directions. My take on this is a little different. The way I see it, Male or Female, they are American Warriors. We should treat all of them the same. No matter where they are. And other nations should Fear and Respect them all the same as well.

I have the greatest respect for our female Warriors. As far as wearing scarves – that’s their choice. Desert wear in an desert environment… fine. But to make them more culturally sensitive? How about showing Afghani Women what a Free Woman looks like?

Okay, I have to admit they look awesome. The Tactical Scarf is kinda cool… and as far as head gear for female soldiers go… it’s an improvement. I mean, what the hell is this?

I’ve always thought the female uniform headgear as being rather silly. The regular headgear, when worn by our female troops, the ball cap or the beret, can look great. I also believe our uniforms should better match our environments. For example, if we have to go to war in a more arctic climate…

With Afghanistan specifically, there’s also the issue that the local women sometimes CAN’T RECOGNIZE a female. There are reported incidents several years back, of female searchers having to strip to the bra so the local women would recognize them and permit a search without panic. To them, uniform = male.

On the other side, back around 2004, the AF required a female colonel in Saudi to wear full length dress and scarf for contact with the locals. The Saudis do not require Western women to do this. They do require full length sleeves and pants. The problem here is they were presenting her to the Saudis as FEMALE, rather than MILITARY OFFICER.

Of course, a number of morons in the letters column replied with crap to the effect of, “It’s their culture and we have to respect their rules,” missing the twofold facts that it was NOT required by the Saudis (Civilian women with State Dept didn’t dress like that, nor female business people) but by some moron in the AF side of the Pentagon, and that the whole, “Respecting their culture” thing could, in some cultures, require men to run around naked or mutilate their genitals to be considered “men.” Would they “respect their rules” in that case?

I tell you what, the Isreali women soldiers kick serious ass and no one questions them when they invade a neighboring country. I think they are more worried that the Isreali women will go all commando on them and start snapping necks. Isreal does what they want when it comes to combat and they could care less about their neighbor’s cultures and sensativities.

I read a comment somewhere (I think it was on WTA) that went something to the effect of “you burn widows in your culture? That’s fine, but in our culture we hang folks that do stuff like that. So you go ahead and build your pyre and stake, and we’ll build our gallows right over here.” I agree with that statement wholeheartedly… I just wish I could remember who said it.

You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.

Ok, so these ladies look like badass, mercenary, jack you up with a flick of their finger kind of women. It’s completely hot and that really isn’t the issue. They are being told to do this so they don’t offend some goat raping rag head local. George has it right, show the Stanie women what a free, empowered women looks like. Show these backward stanie men that they can only wish their women were as drop dead gorgeous as our women warriors.